Her timing couldn’t be better. Marriage rates are the lowest in a century and almost 60 percent lower than in 1970, according to the National Center for Family and Marriage Research. Divorce rates, meanwhile, rose for the third year in a row in 2012, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The figures aren’t necessarily bad news. I’m all for getting yourself out of a lousy marriage — or avoiding the construct altogether, if you’re so inclined. But they do indicate an institution ripe for revolutionizing.

In the new book Love Sense: The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships, Johnson asserts that British psychologist John Bowlby’s attachment theory, which transformed the way we raise children, is applicable — indeed, critical — to creating solid marriages.

Attachment theory puts emotional and physical connection at the center of our relationships. If that seems a no-brainer, consider that, before Bowlby’s work, women were counseled to withhold affection from their offspring.

“Never, never kiss your child,” warned psychologist John Watson in the 1928 book Psychological Care of Infant and Child. “Never hold it in your lap. Never rock its carriage.”

Watson also called a mother’s love a “dangerous instrument,” Johnson notes.

Bowlby’s work in the late 1940s and early ’50s helped put an end to that nonsense by observing and recording interactions between mothers and their children and finding that ongoing, reassuring physical and emotional connections such as eye contact and hugs produce physically and mentally healthier humans.

Johnson, a clinical psychologist and research professor at Alliant International University in San Diego, thinks it’s time to take the same approach with marriage.

“A secure attachment changes the way a baby sees the world because they learn that they’re not alone,” she said. “Adults are the same. A sense of connection changes one of the most basic elements of the brain, which is how you perceive threat. It changes the world into a safer world.”

But, for a host of reasons, we resist connecting.

“We like to think, as adults, we’re somehow self-sufficient,” Johnson says. “You’re not supposed to need another person to balance you. You’re not supposed to need someone to hold your hand.”

So, in our low moments, when we aren’t bringing our best selves to much of anything — our work, our kids, our friendships — we turn inward. We shut out our partner — the very person we need for ongoing, reassuring support. We turn ourselves into standoffish roommates.

“We are mammals who rely on each other for survival,” Johnson says. “We are wired for connection. When you feel shut out, your brain registers that the same way it registers physical pain. It’s a danger cue. Your response is to avoid the danger — to shut down.”

Securely attached couples, she says, give voice to their fears: “I’m exhausted, and I need help.” “I feel as if I’m turning to you for support and I’m not getting it.”

“The way to create strong people is not to tell them to be self-sufficient,” Johnson says. “The way to create strong people is to create stronger relationships.”